A high-level GSMA and FCDO delegation met Federal Minister for IT & Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja in Islamabad to discuss how connectivity and mobile ecosystems can bolster disaster resilience, digital inclusion and sustainable development. The delegation included Ms. Louisa Odell, Innovation and Technology Advisor at the FCDO; Mr. Michael Unwin, Strategic Partnership Lead in the FCDO Technology & Innovation Unit; and Ms. Kimberly Brown, Global Head of Mobile for Humanitarian at GSMA.<\/p>\n
The minister outlined Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif\u2019s Digital Nation Pakistan vision and briefed the visitors on the INSPIRE Semiconductor Program launched by the prime minister. Under the INSPIRE initiative, 7,200 young Pakistanis will receive training in advanced semiconductor technologies, supported by the creation of nine IC Design Labs across university clusters nationwide to strengthen Pakistan\u2019s hardware and chip-design ecosystem.<\/p>\n
The GSMA delegation presented its Mobile for Development (M4D) mandate and recent Pakistan work focused on mobile internet adoption, greater digital inclusion and climate resilience for vulnerable communities through mobile-enabled solutions. Participants discussed practical ways mobile networks and digital services can improve emergency response and expand access to online services for underserved areas, reinforcing the focus on digital growth.<\/p>\n
Representatives from GSMA and the FCDO welcomed Pakistan\u2019s policy steps to nurture entrepreneurship and innovation, highlighting BridgeStart and the Pakistan Startup Fund Programme as important pillars of support. They noted that these initiatives, coupled with skills development under INSPIRE and enhanced mobile connectivity, create momentum for a more inclusive and resilient digital economy.<\/p>\n
The meeting underscored opportunities for collaboration between government, international partners and industry to accelerate digital growth, deepen startup support and scale technology solutions that address both economic and climate-related challenges facing Pakistani communities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FCDO and GSMA met Pakistan’s IT minister to advance digital growth through semiconductor training, mobile inclusion and startup support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":14897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}